The Cabinet will approve the list of companies and individuals that the sanctions will affect.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on “special economic measures” following the hostile moves by Ukraine against Russian citizens and legal entities. The document was published today on the official website of the Kremlin.

Putin’s decree is a framework decision, meaning it does not contain any specific sanctions or a list of persons that are going to be affected. However, the Russian authorities at all levels, as well as organizations and individuals under Russian jurisdiction must proceed from the fact that “from the day this Decree enters into force, special economic measures are applied to certain individuals and legal entities”.

The President instructed the government to compile the lists of individuals and legal entities that must be affected by the special economic measures, to determine the measures themselves and “to ensure the implementation of other measures necessary to implement this Decree”.

The decree comes into force on the date of signing and can be canceled by the submission of the government.

Ukraine had imposed sanctions on several dozen Russian citizens in connection with the Crimea annexation in April 2014, following the EU sanctions. The Ukrainian sanctions list has been expanding ever since, and in May 2018, President Petro Poroshenko issued another decree that resulted in 1.748 individuals and 756 legal entities getting affected by the sanctions. On the list are deputies of the Russian State Duma, Russian political parties, businessmen and their companies. In 2017, Ukraine imposed sanctions on Russian state-owned banks, including Sberbank and VTB that operated on Ukrainian territory, banning capital movement “outside Ukraine in favor of those associated with the banks”.